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# Cuts make for dicey summer beach season
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/cuts-make-for-dicey-summer-beach-season/
- Published: 2003-06-02T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T02:16:31.000Z
- Author: Carolyn Sackariason
- Tags: Environment, Santa Monica, #archive-import

With looming budget cuts and millions of visitors on their way, local lifeguards are guaranteed to face challenges this summer.

Los Angeles beaches receive about 50 million visitors every year, making them one of the busiest in the world. And the lifeguard division of the Los Angeles County Fire Department is currently gearing up for summer — its busiest time of the year.

But it faces $2.1 million in cuts, which could affect public safety and a host of programs including the swift water rescue team and dive team, said Capt. Garth Canning.

The largest budget cut — $600,000 — could be in the form of reducing lifeguard patrols two hours each day. Lifeguards are stationed on the beach from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. But if the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors approve the proposed cuts, lifeguards will close their towers two hours early — at 6 p.m.

“The evenings are the busiest,” Canning said. “If we aren’t able to find alternate sources of funding, we’ll have less lifeguards.”

Another $370,000 cut is proposed from the lifeguards’ supplies and Wife of accused North Korean spy pleads guilty

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/060203-01_01.jpg)

Ocean lifeguard Joe Decker surveys the crowd from Santa Monica Beach tower 1550 on Sunday afternoon. (Photo: John Wood/Daily Press)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 2, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/060203.pdf?ref=smdp.com)